Firewood business is one of the easiest ones to start and make money. It is also one of the common winter business ideas people can come up with. You can also use this type of business to pursue your winter food business . People use firewood for making fire while cooking and many other wood uses. This guide teaches you how to start a firewood business.

How to start a firewood Business

Hey, are you tired of running around with an envelope in town applying for a job? Are you tired of a nagging wife asking for money? Don’t you want to see a financial breakthrough with the resources you have?

If you answered yes to some of the questions I asked above, you are the right person to read this article. Today I am going to talk about firewood.

Almost everyday people use firewood for different purposes. It is either used for making fire, for preparing food for a family and many other useful purposes that I may not even know.

Oh before I go any further, I don’t want you to be left behind what I have been talking about. The article that preceded this one was 16 more profitable business ideas to start. Ensure that you read it to find out which other business ideas you can choose from.

P.S

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Firewood business equipment needed

• An axe
• A saw
• A chain saw
• A hammer and chisels
• Wood splitter
• A face shield musk
• Means of delivery

If you are going to sell firewood, you need to ensure that it is dry and ready to burn. You cannot sell green wood to your clients. It is true that people still buy wood which is still green. But for your business to grow, I advise you to sell a dry firewood which is ready to burn.

An Axe

Everyone starts from the bottom up, however, there are people who start on a large scale when starting a business. If you are starting your firewood business, you must have an axe so that it can aid you when splitting the firewood.

Often times when you start, you will lack equipment, but mostly in the rural areas, people own axes because they are used for splitting firewood and many other important tasks. You can borrow an axe if you don’t have it yet.

You too will have to ensure that you at least own an axe in the long term running of your business.

 It is true that your body will be sore after extensive working. But this is a necessary tool needed when you don’t have log splitter or firewood splitter.

A saw or chain saw

You need a saw to cut down trees to make firewood. Sometimes you encounter hard trees, if you don’t have a chain saw, you will have to apply more effort which can result in a sore body.

You cannot run a firewood business without a saw, whether it is a chain saw or a simple saw. You need one of the two to cut down tree trunks into smaller pieces.

Chain saw is much better because it will speed up production of firewood. Unlike a simple saw, chain saw is faster.

Log splitter or firewood splitter

In cases where a person has enough cash, log splitter is the right tool for firewood business. You will be able to produce more quantities of chopped firewood while using the log splitter.

A hammer and chisels

I have already mentioned that we sometimes have to start from the bottom up. If you don’t have a splitter, a hammer will help you to strike the chisels when splitting the firewood.

A face shield or mask

Face shield helps to prevent saw dust from getting into your lungs. If you work on this type of business without a mask, you are going to suffer from lung diseases after a certain period of time. As a precaution, use a mask or a face shield. Prevention is better than cure.

Means of delivery

Sometimes people are going to need you to deliver firewood to them. You will need to have a delivery van or an oxcart to deliver wood to your customers.

Which are firewood business ideas?

Are you running out of ideas as to which firewood business ideas to start? It depends on what you can offer, if you have trees under your family’s certification or under your name, you can sell all the below type of firewood business idea.

It is up to you to choose which idea best resonates with you. Now the following are the ideas you can implement while starting a firewood business.

• Seasoned firewood
• Dry firewood
• Green firewood

Which trees are best for firewood?

From my own point of view, I think you should use whatever trees are available near you for firewood. Don’t crack your head as to which trees to use. Look for trees that are available nearby.

 Let me make a silly example. Would you rather freeze than making fire with poplar tree? I am asking this question because a fire made from poplar trees doesn’t last for a longer time.

I am sure you all get what I am saying. If you have blue gum trees, use them. If you have cherry trees use them, what I offer here is to try to make a business without having to spend too much. I want you to start a business without experiencing high costs.

The following are some of the best trees to use for firewood:

• Cherry trees
• Blue gum trees
• Maple trees
• Poplar trees
• Blue wattle trees
•  Pine trees
• Oak trees
• Olive trees
• Citrus trees
• Etc

How to tell if the wood is dry?

• If it is cut and split – If the firewood has been chopped and split, we are sure that somehow it is dry, but you will have to ensure that you do some checking if it is dry.

• When it is stacked – more often than not, I know that firewood that has been stacked and packed by myself may be dry. How do I know? I know based on the timeframe in which I have stacked it.

• If the buck is loose – when you look at the firewood, you will know that it is dry if its buck is loose. If it is still tight, it might be that it is not yet dry.

• The color of wood – color is another factor to consider while assessing if the wood is dry or not. Dry firewood is a bit dull in color while green wood is lighter in color. That is how you will determine if the wood is indeed dry

• The weight of that wood – Weight is also another factor to consider while taking measures on whether the wood is dry or not. Green firewood is heavy in weight while dry wood is light in weight.

• How it sounds when it hits something – when striking it to each other, it will tell if it is dry or not. Dry wood has a high sound pitch whereas green wood has a lower pitch.

• Moisture meter – You can determine the dryness of the wood by using this tool. If you want to know how it works, you will read the manual that comes with it.                                    

Where to get firewood?

• Cut unwanted trees that fell during a storm
• You can also get firewood from construction companies
• From people who are close to you

Questions that customers ask you when you sell wood

• Is the wood dry?
• Is the wood fully seasoned?
• Is the wood ready to burn?

How to sell and collect dry firewood

1. Bundles – you can sell wood in small bundles, maybe 10 chops of wood in a bag or more. It will all depend on how you want to do it.

• Truck’s deck – if you don’t have a truck, you can use an oxcart as a measure of how much quantity you want to sell. But if you have a van or a truck, you can use it to measure the quantity depending on your customer’s requirements.

• In piles – you can chop the firewood and stack it in piles and sell it as a pile.

• In pallets – you can put your wood in pallets and sell it to your customers. This is more suitable in urban areas. You may agree or disagree with me on this one, but what matters, pallets is one of the ways in which you can use to sell your wood.

• Cords – This is one of the most common ways of selling wood in Lesotho, this is a large quantity of firewood that is being sold at once.

Things you should know when running a firewood business

• Start with what you have – I already indicated this in the beginning of this article, use the firewood that is nearby.

• Always have more inventory than you think you will need. The reason being, firewood takes time to rot so if you have less inventory, you will in trouble when you get more clients than what you expected.

This isn’t food, it’s not going to rot, if you have more inventory it is still good, you will supply other people than having little inventory.

• Use your network to source wood – Try by all means to use available network; people being relatives, friends and colleagues. You can also use social media to source wood for your business.

• Work on your system – this is to say, how do you plan to sell your firewood? Are you going to deliver it to people? Which packaging methods are you going to use to sell it? All these questions and many others are things you should consider to run a successful firewood business.

• Have a target market – Which groups of people are you aiming to sell your firewood to? You need to define your major target market so that you can build a successful business.

• Store your wood in measured quantities – having measured your wood will help you to easily sell even when you are not around, your children or siblings or even spouses can sell it without making mistakes.

Sometimes clients come unannounced, and you can’t turn down money simply because you don’t have time to measure it correctly. To avoid this, ensure that your wood is always organized.

• Have a professional looking listing – don’t just sell your wood by word of mouth, use social media to market your business. Be very serious about your business and you will succeed. You can also start a website whereby you are advertising your business.

• Teach your customers to order early – To avoid shortage, teach your customers to order in time, there is a saying that “make hay while the sun shines.” If they delay to order, they may be unlucky that the inventory is gone.

This is the end of this article, I am sure you learned that you can still manage to make a living by selling wood. You realized that using trees that have fallen as firewood as the cheapest way to source wood. Apart from that, we learned that you can sell seasonal, dry and green firewood in your business. Not only is that, but you also learned that you should have more inventory than what you need for emergency clients.

If you liked this article, like it or comment below it or show some love by sharing it with your friends. Let’s wood it and fire it up to make that barbecue. Until next time, ciao!